The present invention generally resides in the art of cleaning compounds and, more particularly, resides in the art of water soluble cleaning pads, wherein a cleaning compound is retained in a water-soluble substrate.
Pads and wipes are generally known and employed in the prior art, and typically include a substrate that retains a useful amount of a solution for delivery to a surface. The substrates are usually fabric-based substrates in which the solution is absorbed for use through rubbing the substrate onto a surface. The solutions deliverable in this manner include cleansing compounds, sanitizing compounds, bug repellant compounds, sun screen compounds, hard surface treatment compounds and the like. The pad or wipe is employed simply by rubbing it on the surface to be treated, for example, in the case of a wipe containing a personal cleansing compound, a body part.
In the prior art, a great many of these pads and wipes are thrown away after the useful solution therein has been exhausted, and this creates waste. Thus, particularly in the art of personal cleansing, some efforts have been made to provide a water soluble pad that retains a cleansing compound. But the known water soluble pads of this type retain cleansing compounds that must be made available for use through wetting of the pad. Upon wetting the pad, the pad dissolves and the dried cleansing compound is activated or released and made useful. These pads therefore require the presence of water to perform their cleansing function, and the pad itself is not particularly useful for cleaning.
There exists a need in the art for a dissolvable pad that provides a solution for delivery to a surface, wherein the solution does not have to be activated or released by water in order to be used, such that the pad itself can function as an applicator for the solution. Inasmuch as wipes and pads are provided for the delivery of other solutions, such as bug repellant compounds, sun screen compounds, surface treatment compounds and the like, there also exists a need in the art for a dissolvable pad that provides such other types of compounds for use, and is thereafter able to be safely disposed into public water systems.